TUV conference: Allister says party's growing strength is rooted in truth - and the DUP 'betrayed this country'

The TUV leader told delegates at the annual conference in Cookstown that the DUP’s “brazen lies” should not be forgotten as they “are the undoing of our Union” – and slammed his rivals’ “strategic blunders” over Brexit.

He called for a united approach from Unionism – which he said should “throw down the gauntlet” by saying that if the government’s current review of the Irish Sea border arrangements don’t change the fundamentals, “the Stormont prop” should be removed.

“If there’s any mettle left in the DUP then now’s the time to prove it”, the North Antrim MP said.

Allister’s speech had fresh taunts about the DUP’s Safeguarding the Union deal – the name of which he said was an “abuse of language” – from ‘Dodgy Deal Jeffrey’ and ‘Gave-in Gavin’, to the ‘Stormont Brake with no cable’.

However, the central charge was the same – that the DUP lied and abandoned its unionist principles in the pursuit of office at Stormont.

While there is no mood in the DUP to revisit its Stormont boycott, the Irish Sea border issue has not melted away in the way senior figures believed it would in January 2024. Much of that is down to the TUV which, emboldened by it’s first Westminster success last July, has kept the issue front and centre of its assault on its unionist rivals.

Mr Allister, who ended the Paisley dynasty in North Antrim in an election he framed as one about trust, once again attacked the DUP’s honesty.

He told delegates at the Royal Hotel in Cookstown that it was the “constitutional obscenity of being rendered an EU colony, ruled in significant measure by the same laws as ROI, which caused unionists to refuse to administer such foreign laws through Stormont.

“Yet, with no change, only with their lies, the DUP betrayed that necessary stand. Ribbed unionism of the most fundamental leverage they had, returning to become obedient Protocol implementers. Bought by the trappings of office, they betrayed the cause with lies and deception under the joint leadership of Dodgy Deal Jeffrey and Gave-in Gavin!“Let’s never forget those brazen lies, the Irish Sea border is gone - a deliberate lie; zero checks, zero paperwork - a flagrant falsehood; the green lane is no more - a lie concealed in a mere change of name; the Union is safe - just like the Irish Sea border is gone, I suppose”.

“And all that had its consummation in that day of infamy in Stormont last year.” He said he looked into the gallery watching a “smug” Jeffrey and Gavin watching their “handiwork” as they “enthroned Michelle O’Neill, who should’ve gone to Specsavers”.

In an appeal to those in the DUP still appalled by its behaviour, he urged finding common ground.

“Faced with such betrayal, TUV is the unionist party that brings strength to Unionism. Strength that’s rooted in truth and telling the truth. That is why this party is growing in strength and in influence.“I readily recognise, because I talk to them, there are still unionists in the DUP, and maybe even in the UUP, who recognise the truth of what we say. Who squirm at the lies of their leadership, but by propping up that failed leadership they give credence to that very betrayal.“If ever there was a time for unionists who know and stand for the truth to band together to defend that truth, then this is it. It is my wish that would happen”, Mr Allister said.

Before the DUP returned to Stormont, with the Irish Sea border not only remaining but subsequently expanding in scope, there had been murmurings of resignations. In the end, there were no major defections. Instead, rebels under the Donaldson regime such as Lords Dodds and Morrow, and East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson, shifted party policy to acknowledge that EU law was at the root of the sea border problems.

Jim Allister argues that it is too little too late – with the damage already done.

He told the TUV faithful: “The DUP returning to Stormont was a watershed of surrender” and that the ongoing Murphy Review is “wholly farcical”.

However, he said it presents a “watershed of retrieval” – and if the DUP wants to recover “any semblance of credibility” – the Stormont prop should be removed.

The leader of over 17 years said the Union had been “depleted” and that the foundational guarantee of unfettered trade with GB is in suspension, because supremacy rests in a Protocol.“As if that wasn’t enough, NI is then, in 300 areas, subject, colony-like, to the foreign made laws of the EU. Laws we don’t make and can’t change and laws untouched by a phoney Stormont Brake with no cable”.